Far be it for Japhy to tell Dzongsar Khyentse how to do Facebook, but it is Japhy’s opinion that Rinpoche needs to pump his breaks on his so-called Social Media Guidelines.

“With all due respect, If Dzongsar doesn’t like what he’s seeing in his Facebook stream, that’s entirely on Rinpoche, and of no concern to us.”

Given how Dzongsar Khyentse’s latest book, which Japhy loves, “Not for Happiness,” is in an open invitation to anyone intent on misappropriating the Vajrayana, perhaps Rinpoche should focus his attention on a code of conduct for Rinpoches.

“Personally, I’ve never received anything from Khenpo Karthar, or any other Rinpoche, that can’t be shared. I haven’t a clue what he feels needs protection.”

Clearly, as far as Japhy can tell, Dzongsar has had his fill of people he has friended on Facebook that share with him what he believes shouldn’t be shared.

“A fish rots from the head. We aren’t the problem. The problem of over sharing of the Vajrayana begins and ends with the Rinpoches.”

Not to put too fine a point on this, if Dzongsar Khyentse has friended people on Facebook who post Tantric images, mantras and syllables, nobody has forced Rinpoche to follow these people.

“I’m not a big fan of this either, but its none of my business. This is the slippery slope that Dzongsar has stepped onto.”

As far as Japhy is concerned, the last thing we need in Social Media, are cohorts sticking their noses into the streams of each other.

“This is an open invitation for us to find fault with each other. Thanks, but no thanks Rinpoche.”

If you read Dzongsar Khyentse’s guidelines, Rinpoche wants to prohibit Japhy and his cohorts from even mentioning empowerments, public events, they have attended.

Any of Dzongsar Khyentse’s guidelines that advises Japhy and his cohorts to not talk about something, is a non-starter, from the get go, as far as Japhy is concerned.

“I think the world of Dzongsar, but over my dead body. He will have to pry my iPhone from my dead fingers.”

The bit about ego and spiritual materialism, Chogyam Trungpa’s response to the posers he surrounded himself with in Boulder, doesn’t apply to Japhy and his cohorts.

“It’s like accusing me of hiding a unicorn in my shorts. That kind of talk has no basis in reality.”

Long story short, as far as Japhy can tell, all of Dzongsar Khyentse’s “don’ts” are the “d’ohs” of the people he follows on Facebook.

“I get how much Facebook sucks. I don’t Facebook.”

Japhy remembers when he and his cohorts once entertained the benefits of Tibetan feudalism as a support for their Vajrayana Practice.

“We chose otherwise. It isn’t for us. We have rights. We don’t want anything to do with people telling us to shut up and do as we’re told. Period.”

The first thing Japhy learned from Khenpo Karthar was to keep his nose out of the business of his cohorts.

“What other people are doing is none of my business. We all have to make our own mistakes.”

Dzongsar Khyentse needs to clean up his Facebook accounts, if he has issues with the crap people he has friended on Facebook are sharing with him.

“Otherwise, sharpen your pitchfork and grab a torch, it’s time for a good old fashioned witch hunt.”

Japhy has pushed the envelope here. He knows he has said too much, yet again. Somebody has to push back on this unfortunately. It can’t be allowed to stand.“There are too many cohorts that want nothing more than to foist a code of conduct like Dzongsar Khyentse’s upon their coreligionists.”

Japhy is here today sharing his experiences with his cohorts online because he refused to be cowed by those of his cohorts that resisted his call for transparency.

“They tried, but Khenpo Karthar refused to back them.”

Japhy knows this is much ado over nothing, Dzongsar Khyentse’s Facebook update, and nothing he needs to concern himself with personally.

“It’s Chinatown, Jake. Forget about it.”

It has provided Japhy though with an excuse to embarrass himself yet again. Other than the satisfaction of being entertaining, Japhy has no excuse for anything he has written here. Karmapa Chenno.

Far be it for Japhy to tell Dzongsar Khyentse how to do Facebook, but it is Japhy’s opinion that Rinpoche needs to pump his breaks on his so-called Social Media Guidelines.

“With all due respect, If Dzongsar doesn’t like what he’s seeing in his Facebook stream, that’s entirely on Rinpoche, and of no concern to us.”

Given how Dzongsar Khyentse’s latest book, which Japhy loves, “Not for Happiness,” is in an open invitation to anyone intent on misappropriating the Vajrayana, perhaps Rinpoche should focus his attention on a code of conduct for Rinpoches.

“Personally, I’ve never received anything from Khenpo Karthar, or any other Rinpoche, that can’t be shared. I haven’t a clue what he feels needs protection.”

Clearly, as far as Japhy can tell, Dzongsar has had his fill of people he has friended on Facebook that share with him what he believes shouldn’t be shared.

“A fish rots from the head. We aren’t the problem. The problem of over sharing of the Vajrayana begins and ends with the Rinpoches.”

Not to put too fine a point on this, if Dzongsar Khyentse has friended people on Facebook who post Tantric images, mantras and syllables, nobody has forced Rinpoche to follow these people.

“I’m not a big fan of this either, but its none of my business. This is the slippery slope that Dzongsar has stepped onto.”

As far as Japhy is concerned, the last thing we need in Social Media, are cohorts sticking their noses into the streams of each other.

“This is an open invitation for us to find fault with each other. Thanks, but no thanks Rinpoche.”

If you read Dzongsar Khyentse’s guidelines, Rinpoche wants to prohibit Japhy and his cohorts from even mentioning empowerments, public events, they have attended.

Any of Dzongsar Khyentse’s guidelines that advises Japhy and his cohorts to not talk about something, is a non-starter, from the get go, as far as Japhy is concerned.

“I think the world of Dzongsar, but over my dead body. He will have to pry my iPhone from my dead fingers.”

The bit about ego and spiritual materialism, Chogyam Trungpa’s response to the posers he surrounded himself with in Boulder, doesn’t apply to Japhy and his cohorts.

“It’s like accusing me of hiding a unicorn in my shorts. That kind of talk has no basis in reality.”

Long story short, as far as Japhy can tell, all of Dzongsar Khyentse’s “don’ts” are the “d’ohs” of the people he follows on Facebook.

“I get how much Facebook sucks. I don’t Facebook.”

Japhy remembers when he and his cohorts once entertained the benefits of Tibetan feudalism as a support for their Vajrayana Practice.

“We chose otherwise. It isn’t for us. We have rights. We don’t want anything to do with people telling us to shut up and do as we’re told. Period.”

The first thing Japhy learned from Khenpo Karthar was to keep his nose out of the business of his cohorts.

“What other people are doing is none of my business. We all have to make our own mistakes.”

Dzongsar Khyentse needs to clean up his Facebook accounts, if he has issues with the crap people he has friended on Facebook are sharing with him.

“Otherwise, sharpen your pitchfork and grab a torch, it’s time for a good old fashioned witch hunt.”

Japhy has pushed the envelope here. He knows he has said too much, yet again. Somebody has to push back on this unfortunately. It can’t be allowed to stand.“There are too many cohorts that want nothing more than to foist a code of conduct like Dzongsar Khyentse’s upon their coreligionists.”

Japhy is here today sharing his experiences with his cohorts online because he refused to be cowed by those of his cohorts that resisted his call for transparency.

“They tried, but Khenpo Karthar refused to back them.”

Japhy knows this is much ado over nothing, Dzongsar Khyentse’s Facebook update, and nothing he needs to concern himself with personally.

“It’s Chinatown, Jake. Forget about it.”

It has provided Japhy though with an excuse to embarrass himself yet again. Other than the satisfaction of being entertaining, Japhy has no excuse for anything he has written here. Karmapa Chenno.

I'd like to point out that Rinpoche posted this as his own "status" on FB--so presumably he was speaking to people connected to him--who are in the thousands. It was I who reposted it here on DW, because it was interesting.

In addition I would like to point out that they are suggested guidelines, not proposed laws. As far as I can tell from my FB feed, they have had no significant effect.

It's an interesting idea that empowerments are public events, and perhaps we could consider reframing them when we organize them for the lamas.

As I understand it, the restricted teachings Khenpo Kartar's tradition, such as one of the volumes of the Karma Chagme's Mountain Retreat, and many empowerments of the tradition, are given only in his three year retreat center in Delhi. That's one way of doing it.

As a side note, I spent the whole day yesterday at a Compassion Research Day at Facebook Headquarters in Menlo Park, California. It was really interesting.

I just thought it was an interesting take (especially since it was a different one from the rest of this forum) and there are actually things in there I agree with.

Best,

Clarence

P.S. Your blog has been awfully quiet for some time now.

The author of that blog is a student in a Dharma system that has a strong monastic hierarchy. I can imagine being exasperated, dealing with a system that does not share a lot of our values as Americans. I don't personally like how he is choosing to deal with it, by doing a kind of angry comedy about his issues, but I understand.

My blog is silent because I'm writing a novel for teens right now, to get them interested in the Vajrayana. I may just start writing about writing.

gregkavarnos wrote:Who the f*ck is "Japhy" and why would I take their advice over Dzongsar Khyentse's?

And as I mentioned in a note I posted on "Japhy's" blog, a couple thousand of the "poseurs Trungpa Rinpoche surrounded himself with in Boulder" completed the full Karma Kagyu ngondro, a commitment that is pretty effective at weeding out dilettantes and lightweights.

Chris

"All the sublime teachings, so profound--to throw away one and then grab yet another will not bear even a single fruit. Persevere, therefore, in simply one."--Dudjom Rinpoche, "Nectar for the Hearts of Fortunate Disciples. Song No. 8"

I don't like the tone of the "suggested" guide lines.It is clear to me that there is a potential harm because of the patronization behind the words. Talking to people this way has never felt good to anyone.

Karma Dondrup Tashi wrote:DKR is authorized to precisely be a "patron" of the dharma.

Yes, but not the meaning I was refering into. "To treat in a condescending manner."You can as you say be a patron and show kindness and softness without this powerful harmful kind of disregard superiority.

Also, it would be great to tell why exactly this behavior is not right in such and such case like for example showing this kind of picture.In my case, on facebook many people ask me questions and are really interested from what I am doing. It's not really what you are doing but how you are doing it.

So, he may be right in some cases, but it seems to me that it is quite an extreme to be so clear-cut.

Yudron wrote:The author of that blog is a student in a Dharma system that has a strong monastic hierarchy. I can imagine being exasperated, dealing with a system that does not share a lot of our values as Americans. I don't personally like how he is choosing to deal with it, by doing a kind of angry comedy about his issues, but I understand.

My blog is silent because I'm writing a novel for teens right now, to get them interested in the Vajrayana. I may just start writing about writing.

I think he hits some important issues we western Vajrayana practitioners have to grapple with. Also, I think there is less comedy than he wants us to believe. That said, I don't think he is really angry either. I think he writes about what he sees are real problems and impediments to the growth and growing up of Vajrayana Buddhism in the west. BTW, no one else has to think about his posts like I do. I do think I should be able to post his ideas/blog and have it judged on content--and not just style.

Ah, sounds great to write such a book. If what you write here is any indication, I am sure your novel will be great.

I am actually very pleased that DJKR take the time to hit me in the head with this article. I feel a bit dazed and confused but not exactly dead yet. So please bring on the full power of your compassion now Rinpoche.

/magnus

"To reject practice by saying, 'it is conceptual!' is the path of fools. A tendency of the inexperienced and something to be avoided."- Longchenpa

Japhy is the name of the Zen Buddhist character in Kerouac's book "The Dharma Bums" so he does represent that American take on things, maybe something more appropriate to Americanised Zen than Tibetan Lamas - I get the image that DKR used of himself sitting on his high throne and not wanting to give up certain priveledges and luxuries for the sake of appearances - the idea that neurosis about such things in either direction is a worldly concern.

we cannot get rid of God because we still believe in grammar - Nietzsche

I actually thought Rinpoches advice was quite reasonable, but I do wonder something. Is it possible that a part of Rinpoches disapproval of facebook behavior might be due not the people exactly, but to the medium itself?

Facebook lends itself to trivialization of everything, there is no subject that can be discussed on FB and not somehow be trivialized because that is the nature of it as a medium. The only "right way" to communicate about something with discretion on FB is simply to communicate about it less on FB, the format and delivery trivializes substantial things.

If you don't know what i'm talking about, find one of your friends who you know as an otherwise intelligent person, see if they've posted anything politically or otherwise controversial, andif people have bothered commenting on it. It seems to me that even with very smart people, with the best of intentions, the format makes meaningful exchange painful, FB is by nature about making things "lite" and mundane, and making you neurotically check them.